inevitable Confusions and Troubles which a Rupture would produce and expect that our Moderation might touch their hearts or that the Divine Providence would by some other means provide for our safety But this Patience of ours hath served them for a Ladder whereby they have mounted to open Infringings of the Peace which cannot admit of any Interpretation or Extenuation And I defie all the subtiltie of the Gallicane litigious Cavills to palliate them with the least pretext or meanest appearance of Justice 'T is here that I do intreat the Reader to shew me no favour but to devest himself of all kind of Complacencie which perhaps he may have for us to retain all his Partialitie if any he have for our Enemies and to judge of our Cause with the uttermost of Rigour The Abandoning of Portugal is one of the essential Foundations of the Peace without that it could never have been treated of nor concluded France doth declare it by these words in the LX Article of the said Treatie For as much as we have foreseen and apprehended that such an Engagement might be an Obstacle not to be surmounted in the conclusion of the Peace and consequently reduce the Two Kings to a necessity of perpetuating the War And a little beneath in the very same Article it goes on in these terms In fine in contemplation of the Peace and seeing the absolute necessity wherein his most Christian Majestie finds himself either to perpetuate the War by a Rupture of the present Treatie which he perceives to be inevitable in case he should have persisted to obtain in this Affair from his Catholick Majestie other Conditions then those which he had offered c. 'T is clear in the second place by the same Article that to oblige France to this Abandoning the King of Spain refused from the most Christian King the Restitution of all those places and Dominions upon which the Arms of France had seised during the War The terms are clear in the same Article Offering besides the places which are to be restored unto his Catholick Majestie by the present Treatie to render unto him also all the other Conquests in general which his said Arms have made in this War and intirely to restore the Prince of Conde providing and upon condition that the Affairs of the Kingdome of Portugal should remain in the state in which at present they are 'T is likewise out of controversie every way that this Abandoning of Portugal was covenanted and promised by France so authentically and in such clear and special terms that it cannot be called in question nor be made subject to any Interpretations contrary to the true sense and intention of the Parties contracting Here you have the terms His said Majestie shall meddle no more with the said Affair and doth promise and oblige himself upon his Honour and in the Faith and the Word of a King for himself and his Successors not to give unto the aforementioned Kingdom of Portugal neither in general nor to any person or persons of it in particular of what dignity estate or condition they way be neither for the present nor hereafter any Aid or Assistance publick or secret directly or indirectly of Men Arms Ammunition Victuals Ships or Moneys under any pretext nor of any other thing that is or can be by land nor by Sea nor in any other farshion as likewise not to permit that any Leavies shall be made in any of his most Christian Majestie 's Kingdoms and Estates nor grant free passage to those which may come out of other Countries to the help of the aforesaid Realm of Portugal 'T is no less evident that they have failed in every point and every circumstance of this Promise That from the very beginning they secretly conveyed Troups into Portugal in several bodies That at the self-same time when upon the complaints of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports that no Souldiers should be suffered to imbark for Portugal they did not abstain from making them pass under-hand and by connivence That a little while after the Marshall of Turenne publickly made Leavies for their assistance and that the Marquess de la Fuente having represented that this was a direct Contravention to the Treatie of Peace they pay'd him with this cold and disdainfull Answer that it was a particular act of the Marshall of Turenne's in which the Court of France had no hand That they continued to provide them with Corn and all other sorts of Ammunition for War And all this whilst the effect of the pretended Devolution was yet uncertain and could no waies operate even among private persons unless the Daughter did survive the Father and before ever the French made any Instance or Overture touching that Pretension We have in our hands the Letters intercepted which make faith that the Court of France hath ever since the Peace fomented the Obstinacie of the Portugueses that she hath hindred them from accepting the advantagious Conditions which were offered them animating them by a hope of mightie Succours not onely for their own Defence but also for carrying an Offensive War into the very heart of Spain We have many Letters of Monsieur de Lionne and the Archbishop of Ambrun to Monsieur de Shomberg which prove the continual Correspondence which was betwixt them for the direction of that War No body is ignorant how the Duke of Beaufort the last year came with his whole Fleet upon the Coasts of Portugal where he spent a part of the Summer to the great prejudice of his Allies onely to secure the passage of Victuals and Ammunition whereof the Portugueses were in extreme want and that at the same time when they were offering us their Mediation to work an Accommodation with Portugal All the World knows that Monsieur Colbert privately made several voiages thither to encourage them and contract a secret Alliance with them That the Sieur Courtin a little while after the close of the Pyrenean Treatie went expressly into England to move the King of Great Britain not to abandon the Portugueses We intercepted in a French Bottom which came from Portugal the accompt of the Expences and the Succours which France hath given without intermission to that Kingdome since the Conclusion of the Peace whereby it is clear amongst other things that the French have alwaies entertained Troups at their own charge to uphold this War And for the Master-piece of all these unjust proceedings France it self cannot deny but that it hath lately concluded a League offensive with that Kingdome against all its Enemies The principal Conditions of this League are That they shall be the Friends of their Friends and the Enemies of their Enemies excepting England That France shall furnish them with as many men as they need to carry on an offensive War in Spain both by Sea and land shall advance unto them by way of loan the half of their Pay for the
Vesuve to set the whole neighbouring Countries on fire The first * The Bishop of Rodes Governour of the most Christian King hath given him for a Modell the Life and Designs of his Grandfather Henry the Fourth as may be seen in the Book which he hath published This Prince as well by his own Genius as by the happy success of his first Undertakings hath relished such Instructions and hath solelie proposed to himself this Example for the Rule of his Actions The History of this Great King hath been his most ordinary study He hath in imitation of him taken great care to accumulate much Treasure sought for Alliances abroad and at length hath raised most powerfull Armies We must therefore conclude that he acts upon the very same Draughts and that all we see at present are but renewed Projects and the effects of those Impressions which he hath sucked in with his milk To draw the Consequences from these Principles we need onely reade the Memorials of Henry the Fourth those of the President Jannin and of the Bishop of Rodes and conclude that whatsoever that Potent King had conceived in his imagination this King intends to bring forth by the power of his Armies But as the desire of Glory hath no bounds and that his years and present condition put him in a capacitie to run a longer course then Henry the Great so we cannot reasonably expect that the swiftness of the Rhine shall be able to stop him His Writers have taken a great deal of pains to nourish him in these thoughts and as that sort of men have no other studie but to observe the weakness of their Prince the better to insinuate their Flatteries they have freely sacrificed their mercenarie Pens to tickle this natural desire of Glory which they have discovered in him The Rewards they have received are authentick marks of his Acceptance and this acknowledgment in a young spirit that believeth himself to be in a posture to execute all that pleaseth him and which hath drunk in this Maxime That to take possession by the Sword any Title is sufficient must needs be esteemed a dangerous forerunning Sentence against all those upon whom he shall believe that he hath any thing to pretend Which yet more clearly to make appear to us we onely need reade the printed Books which have lately been dedicated unto him and principally one above the rest which carries the Title of THE JVST PRETENSIONS OF THE KING OF FRANCE TO THE EMPIRE where having laid down for a Ground That the Dominions of Sovereign Princes have always been the Dominions and Conquests of their Estates and That the Dominions and Conquests of Crowns can neither be alienated nor prescribed he adds the two Articles following 1. That the greatest part of Germanie is the Patrimony and ancient Inheritance of French Princes 2. Charlemagne did possess Germanie as King of France and not as Emperour I leave to those who will vouchsafe to reade over this Treatise to form the Consequences from such Premisses If one may judge of what is to come by what is past all Europe will have cause enough to stand upon her guard if it doth but reflect upon the conduct of France since the close of the Pyrenean Peace till this minute Hardly did we see that Treatie established upon the most religious and inviolable Laws that humane Prudence could devise when presently upon a small punctilio of difference for the precedency of Embassadors which had been always in dispute and was left undecided by the Peace they proceeded to the uttermost extremities against a Father-in-Law at the same time when they suffered without murmuring the unheard-of Indignities which the Grand Vizier at Constantinople caused to be committed against the Royal Person of the most Christian King in that of his Embassador and when they did admit without taking the least offence thereat the Competition for place betwixt the Swedish Embassadors and theirs which is so much the more remarkable that even in the Pyrenean Treatie the two Crowns marched equally hand in hand together and that in one of the Instruments thereof Spain was the first nominated and in the other France Why then did they conclude the Peace with this Equalitie if they were resolved to break it afterwards upon the point of Competition Which makes it evidently seen that from the very day of the Peace they have always watched for the occasions of War and concluded this Treatie onely to take a little breath to settle their Revenues at home and make an end of reducing their people under the yoak The Bonesires which were every where kindled for joy of the Peace were not quite extinguished when an evident breach of the Treatie was seen by the Succours which France sent into Portugal at the beginning under the name of the Marshal of Turenne and a little while after without any kind of disguise A Sedition which happened at Rome to the great displeasure of the Pope by the Souldiers who were provoked with an infinity of Insolencies committed by the French Embassador's Familie The Duke of Creqny was near putting all Italy again into Combustion had not the tears of his Holiness stopt it by sacrificing his own Kindred and erecting a Pyramide to France for an unworthy Trophie of the spoils of the glory of the Vicarie of Jesus Christ and the common Father of whom they style themselves the Eldest Sons A little after they obliged the Duke Charles of Lorrain to sell them his Dutchy to the prejudice of the lawful Successor and the Contract not being valid they forced him with violence to put the onely place which was left him into their hands by means whereof revoking their Bargain they got the thing without paying the price The Bishop of Munster who was included in the League of the Rhine seeing himself attaqued in the Empire by the States of Holland in vain implored their assistance by virtue of the Warrantie but when he began to resent it he was straight assaulted by the French Troups and if his own Enemies had not shewn more moderation towards him then their Allies his Countrey which is of the Patrimony of the Church had been at present totally reduced into Ashes The War of England against the States of the Vnited Provinces which was raised by the French practices and fomented by their industry in giving the counterpoise to him who for the time appeared the weaker hath sufficiently instructed all the World that the Game of France is to depress all Powers which are capable of obstructing the torrent of their Enterprizes But to stray no farther from the matter which I have in hand I will be contented to note onely two plain Arguments which evidently prove that their Design is to drive on their Conquests as far as ever the fortune of War will suffer them and that those Overtures of Peace which they do make are but to amuse the neighbouring Princes and to bridle their own Subjects
absolutely out of all Commerce Fourthly That this Renunciation is the Soul and the inseparable Condition of this Treatie of Marriage without which it had never been either designed or concluded nor consequently the Treatie of Peace as is expressed in the Article before cited Fifthly That it proceeds not from the bare motion of the deceased King or a particular inclination of his towards the Children of the Second Bed but out of an inevitable Necessity flowing from the Salique Law and the unjust Extention which France doth make of it to all the States which Fortune hath put into her power this Necessitie and the other of the Publick good with the conservation of this August Familie reduced the Infanta to the condition of never being able to be Queen of France but by this Renunciation Sixthly This is evident by the Act of Renunciation fol. 17. That there 's no constraint nor violence on her Father's part whose Sweetness and natural Moderation have so eminently shined throughout the whole course of his life not onely towards his faithful Subjects but likewise towards his Enemies and Rebells that many conceived it did reach unto excess It is not to be presumed that the same heart which had in it an inexhaustible treasure of Bountie toward all the rest of the World should have nothing but Rigour and Hardness for a Daughter who was the Centre of his choicest delights If there had been any Constraint the effects would have been seen by some Complaint or Action of the Infanta's and if her respect to her Father did hold them up her Discontent would have appeared in her eyes and in her face the troubles of the Soul what care soever is taken to hide them do imprint a character outwardly which betrays the secret of the Heart Never was any seen to go to a Wedding with more visible signs of satisfaction She signed this Act with so pleasant a Resolution that it was easie to observe she much more esteemed what she was to acquire then what she lost thereby and the Tears which she shed at this day for this War of which against her mind they do make her the innocent Pretext witness sufficiently that she disapproves of the Cause of it as much as she detests the Effects and are authentick ratifications of the free Consent which she gave to this Renunciation If she had done it unwillingly she would not have failed to have made Protestations against it as soon as ever she found her self in a condition to declare without fear and with the applause of all France the true thoughts of her minde She her self will confess without doubt that it was neither Respect nor Obedience no nor Complacencie but the free choice of her own Inclination and Prudence That the King her Father neither employed his Paternal power nor Royal Authority nor Command nor Threats nay not so much as Persuasions to induce her thereunto but that he satisfied himself by proposing nakedly the state of Business to her that he might leave to her self the entire decision That of the two parts she made choice of the most advantagious and the most fitting That she never repented of this Choice and would to day doe the same thing again without any kind of hesitation if she were in the same condition in which she was then From whence it may be concluded that this Act having been made without any kind of Fear or Violence it cannot be called in question by reason of any exception of the Civil Laws Qui metum non intendit Promissio validè fiet nec scrutabimur quid aut quatenus ejus intersit quae Juris Romani sunt subtilitates Grot. lib. 3. cap. 19. de Jure Belli Seventhly That there is no Laesion seeing that she acquires a greater Benefit then that which she hath renounced not being able to possess them both together by an irremediable repugnancie It was then a kind of Permutation rather then a Cession because she gave to obtain and quitted to get The Laws give no rise to an entire Restitution where the condition of the Minor is rendred more advantagious by the Contract and do permit in this case Alienations even of the Goods of Pupills It is almost impracticable in the Contracts of Kings to prove the Laesion and determine the legal Portion with its just weight which cannot be verified but by the valuation of the Goods the inevitable Expences must be deducted and the necessary Charges their affairs are involved into so many Intrigues charged with so many Obligations and Costs that to consider it in its rigour there remains very little unto them whereof they can freely dispose and by the ordinary Rules it is impossible to set a price upon their Estates It is for this reason that they are accustomed by a practice received among Monarchs to give unto the Daughters a certain summe of Money which serves instead of a legal Portion without ever coming to any other rating of Goods which cannot be justly valued The most Christian Kings do practice this towards the Daughters of France He of England used the same way towards the Dutchess of Orleans our King towards his The Princes of Italie and Germanie have the same Custome without ever speaking of Supplements legal Portions or Laesions which are properly the Actions of private persons unworthy the Greatness of Monarchs who never act for Profit but for Reason of State Moreover we must consider as I have said this Marriage not as a private Contract but as a Member of the Treatie of Peace which necessarily relates to all the other Conditions By the said Treatie and consequently in consideration of the said Marriage are granted unto the most Christian King a great quantity of Provinces and States which do so notably increase his Dominions much exceeding the value of whatever the Queen of France can pretend for her legal Portion and this Concession doth redound to the advantage and to the Greatness of the Queen of France by that inseparable conjunction which unites all her Husband's Interests with hers Whence it follows that this Cession ought to suffice her in the place of her legal Portion since the Marriage was made in favour of the Peace and the Peace in consideration of the Marriage and that they are two indivisible things which could not have being the one without the other and so strongly chained together that the Conditions of the Marriage are included in the essence of the thing if the Cause the End the Effects and the whole Context of the Negotiation be considered 'T is in vain that they alledge that they have acquired them by the right of Arms and that they were in a condition to drive us to Extremities and would have us esteem it a grace to have spoiled us but of a half 't is too much to presume on their good fortune and to dispose too absolutely of the success of Arms of which God alone hath reserved the events to his Providence
of Portugal was carefully to be nourished to consume by a slow fire this Monarchie and keep at the same time Portugal in their Dependencie by the necessity of their Assistance A War must be raised between England and Holland and prolonged by a thousand Artifices to get themselves elbow-room to Invade the Low-Countries whilst these two great Powers should be drowned in Bloud to their reciprocal Ruine It was held requisite to sow the Seeds of Division in the Empire by the means of particular Leagues which under colour of the Good of the Peace of Germany have no other End then to facilitate the Invasion of it and hinder Assistance to be given to one of its most precious Members A powerfull Faction likewise was to be raised in Poland to keep all the Princes of the North under check and a part of the Emperour's Forces unusefully imployed in the Gard of his Frontiers To seem indifferent to both Religions it was necessary one while to assist the Elector of Mentz against those of Erfort and then the Elector Palatine against Mentz and to seek everywhere their Advantages in the Troubles of others I cannot here omit one fresh Example which makes much to my purpose though I foresee that it will occasion as much horrour in the Reader as it hath done to my own Pen. France by virtue of a Treatie of Warrantie with the States of the United Provinces after divers unusefull Requisitions made by the said States found her self at last obliged by her Interest to make some shew of an inclination to imbrace their Defence against England This Treatie of reciprocal Warrantie expresly contains that the Allies should not so much as treat and much less conclude any Peace with the Common Enemie or Truce without the consent of the other and without procuring the same Satisfaction for their Allie which he should obtain for himself The States of the United Provinces did so scrupulously adhere to this Obligation that notwithstanding the little Reality of the French Succours against England and the considerable Advantages which they could have found by Treating apart they would never lend an ear unto any Proposition of this nature France on the contrary alwaies held a Negotiation open by the means of the Earl of S. Albans and upon the just Suspicions which they gave unto the said States by the frequent goings and comings and the flux and reflux of Courriers continually passing betwixt Paris and London the Court of France did so authentickly confirm to them their Faith and gave them so positive words that they would never hearken to any Proposition but in the common Assembly for the General Peace between all the Allies that even they ordained the Count de l'Estrade that in case credit were not given to what he assured in the quality of Embassadour so good an opinion have they of the honesty of their Ministerie he might devest himself of his Character to assure them of it in his own name A great honour indeed for Monsieur de l'Estrade which shews that he is not capable of deceiving but in the quality of a Minister of France and that the Probity of his Person exalts the Dignity of his Charge Notwithstanding if he had been so unadvised as to have engaged himself in this Surety he would at this day have found himself liable both to the Principal and the Interest it being out of doubt that England hath had the dexterity to engage France in this Quagmire to conclude a secret Treatie of Peace with them without the Consent nay without the Knowledge of their Allies without making any mention of them or of their Interests and without any reservation of or relation to the General Peace But that which is yet more astonishing is that after this Peace was concluded notwithstanding the Promise made to the English not to use any Hostility against them France used all its endeavours with the States of the United Provinces to put out their Fleet speedily to Sea binding themselves to joyn their own Fleet with it and agreeing with them upon all the Conditions necessary for this effect If this proceeding doth not open the eyes or all Europe they 'l have no cause to complain of the Calamities which they are to suffer by France which takes so much pains to undeceive them All the Maximes which I have above related are those of Conquerours but their manner of executing them is so much the more to be feared as it consists altogether in Quickness and Activity and that no Reason of Justice nor any Condescension to the Interposition of Neighbours and of their own Allies is able to stop the current of it It is no more now the fear nor the jealousie of the Power of the House of Austria which served them for a Pretext in their former Wars that makes them act at this day they dare no longer make use of that ridiculous Scarecrow of the Universal Monarchie aimed at by the Spaniards they have no occasion from the Discontents of the Protestants of Germanie and their Alliances with the United Provinces they can no longer cloak with the Interest of others the Itch which they have to conquer there remained nothing else for them to doe but to goe seek the occasions of War in the very Sanctuary of Peace and to form the project of it upon a Marriage which they themselves do avow was made for no other End but to render the Union eternal and inseparable It may be judged by all this discourse that these great Designs must needs have a vaster Idea then the Conquest of the Low-Countries that they are the first attaqued as the Out-works to the end they may lodge themselves without impediment in the Body of the place they have Pretensions to the greatest part of Gemanie as an ancient Domain of France which could not be alienated They are going to form to themselves a Precedent against the States of Holland by the Annulling of all the Royal Surrenders and the Establishment of the Devolution They covet Harbours in Spain Leagues in the Empire Factions in Poland Wars in England and Holland Passes into Italie and the Sovereign Arbitrage every-where Their Quiet consists in the Trouble of all others their Glory in Conquests and their Advantage in the publick Calamities In this they follow their sole and supreme Rule of Interest It is the part of all others to take their measures from this and to think seriously of prosecuting their own There remains something to be said of the particular Obligation of the Empire for the Defence of the Circle of Burgundie I shall pass but lightly over this matter because it is already decided by a solemn Act of the Chancerie of the Empire and that he who hath written on this Point at Ratisbon hath penetrated in few words so throughly into the Bottom of this Affair and so drained it that he hath left nothing to be added no more then to be replied thereto In effect I never